AZARIA FAREEN
LEAF Capital Pte Fiji is taking a lead in the establishment of Fiji’s first ever national Electric Vehicle (EV) transport eco-system which is green, releases potentially zero emission and generates more renewable energy.
With Fiji being the first country in the world to sign up to the Paris Agreement, this initiative paves the way for others to support the Fijian Government’s climate ambition in advocating ways to combat climate change and its long-term emission reductions strategies.
Owner and director of Leaf Capital, Alex Reddaway said the company has invested half a million into the set-up of the super charging stations from Suva to Nadi and the import of EV’s with the intention of investing about $2 million more.
“While setting up the super charging stations, we are planning to combine solar charging EV’s to have a carbon negative transport eco-system, which will generate surplus electricity, so every kilowatt you use will be logged on smart charging which will be offset by solar electricity, hydro or anything renewable that we can invest in,” he highlighted.
The company uses super chargers installed with “load guards” which sense the load being drawn from the grid and adjusts the charger’s usage to keep total load under a pre-set maximum.
“Looking at the projections of EV’s for Fiji, a relatively small requirement of network of about 10 chargers would be sufficient in the country,” he said.
“For businesses this is a huge opportunity – for buses, taxis, mini-buses, private cars and any high-end mileage user, the impact is enormous,” he added.
The company has launched a charging network with an App that allows the user to locate charging stations anywhere in Fiji, the type of charger needed and the option of reserving it.
The app will guide the user to these stations and after use, allow the customer to pay for it.
“There are charging station network sites set-up in Kundan Singh and Mana Coffee while construction is being done at Maui Bay, RB Patel Jetpoint and South Pacific Coffee which will be completed next month,” he said.
As announced in the 2022-2023 National Budget, the Fijian Government has been promoting and sup-porting the use of green technologies through the expansion of incentives to support the procurement of EV’s and setting up of charging stations in the country.
The Fijian Government has now increased subsidy from five to 10 per cent on investment threshold of $50,000 for capital investments in charging stations for EV’s.
Value Added Tax (VAT) and fiscal duty on all electric vehicles are also now zero-rated to allow accelerated depreciation of 100 per cent.
The Government will also provide a $10,000 cash rebate per vehicle if a local business purchases five vehicles or more.